Word Verification On

Sorry, I have had to reinstate word verification for comments, I have been hit by a wave of spam.

The Seagull Caption

I know you've all lost interest in my captions, but, what the hell, it's Friday - (Isn't it? I may be wrong about this, I'm in Norfolk.) - and I like the seagull.

Hurting Women is Fun

Every time I see the BBC spy show Spooks - not often, I admit - I see a woman being tortured. I guess this is more box office than a tortured man. I have also seen Heather Mills going weepy and crazy about her treatment in the tabloids. The tabloids - shorthand for all pop media - say she had it coming because she courted publicity, she had some kind of form and so on. I have no view of Mills's moral status, primarily because I don't care but also because I know perfectly well it is irrelevant. By marrying McCartney, she automatically turned herself into a standard blonde bitch for the tabloids. Blonde bitches make particularly juicy torture victims. Finally, we have the stout-hearted yeoman of Edenbridge burning an effigy of Cherie Blair. They had, of course, considered Heather Mills. The charge is that Blair is making money from a book. Burn the witch, sorry, bitch! Sexual sadism - there's a lot of it about.

Burn This Book

Scanning a publisher's catalogue, as I do, I come across Three Lions: The Unofficial Story of the England Football Team Since 1966 by Brian Beard to be published in April. The blurb announces, 'Published for Euro 2008; the ultimate fan's guide...' etc.. As I recall, The Worst Football Team in the World now stands little chance of qualifying for Euro 2008.  This book, I fear, will only pour more salt in the wound and send Frank Lampard back to his cognitive therapist.

Careless Pork

It's gratifying to see that the latest nonsense on cancer, booze, meat, etc is being greeted by the press with due scepticism - and, in the case of The Sun, downright mockery. Today's paper (not the online edition alas) carries the inspired headline Careless Pork Costs Lives. This is all in refreshing contrast to the ever worthy, ever credulous, ever minatory BBC, which led its bulletins with the supposed alcolhol-cancer link - despite the fact that obesity-cancer is the story, inasmuch as there is one. Hats off to Her Majesty's Press!

The Day The Clown Cried

I have had this magnificent tale of movie madness drawn to my attention, and feel I must share it. How could Robin Williams have turned this one down? It just screams Robin Williams...

Halloween Must Be Stopped

Does anybody, in this country, actually want Halloween? Last night I saw grim-faced mothers marching along the road with brats wrapped in sheets crudely marked with felt-tips. This is an American show. We don't like it, we never used to do it and we don't have to now.

The Shield: Send Vic Mackey to Iraq

Reeling from the news that dark matter doesn't exist, that Elvis, fiscally, lives, that my cold sores will destroy my mind, that the Iraq war is God's judgment on gay-tolerating America and that we played the Darth Vader march for King Abdullah, I find myself unable to compete with the real world this morning. But, anyway ... CaptainB comments below that The Shield is the best cop show on TV. He said this to me a while ago and, as a result, I found myself with the complete seasons three and four on DVD. It is an extraordinary piece of work. Everybody in The Shield is ugly and nobody is a hero. The main characters are permanently engaged in corruption and torture and in elaborate deals with the gangs they are supposed to be fighting. Best on TV? Probably, though I don't see many cop shows. But, while watching, I suddenly realised why CaptainB likes it so much. He is a great believer in dividing one's enemies - precisely what, he argues, we should have done in Iraq and Afghanistan. We could, for example, have made a deal with Iran in return for destroying Saddam and the Taleban. This is, in fact, precisely what the cops in The Shield do. It isn't pretty and it can never achieve total victory. But it is the best that, under the circumstances, can be done. It is a view of life as a series of compromises intended to move a little closer to good and a little further away from evil. In strategic terms, Vic Mackey is a dirty realist; as such, he'd probably be a better Middle East envoy than Tony Blair - remember him?

Harry Harries Harriers (not)

It seems it's not only Blackmailed Binky in trouble this week. If the cops can stand this up, it will provide a heaven-sent opportunity to use the above headline. I should, however, point out that there is not a jot or scintilla of suspicion that any such unpleasantness has occurred, etc, etc...

Viability - A Thought Experiment

The abortion debate grumbles on, and this time round Viability has become the watchword. But is viability really the point? As this is the Thought Experiments blog, let's try one. Suppose a foetus/embryo was viable at every stage of its existence - and with the development of 'artificial wombs' etc, this might even become a possibility - would that make abortion at any stage impermissible? Or suppose human beings were so consituted as to be viable only after live birth at full term - would that make abortion at any stage short of full-term labour permissible?